Society has devoted significant efforts toward ameliorating the deleterious effects of compulsive drug use such as antisocial behavior, physiological addiction, physical debilitation, contraction of diseases and ultimately death. Use of hospitalization, counseling, treatment programs and withdrawal management have been part of continuing attempts to minimize the impact of addiction. Yet drug addiction continues to be an ongoing problem among adolescents and adults alike.
Researchers who have studied the biological basis of drug addiction have found that the painful withdrawal and frequent relapse could be attributed to significant physiopathological alterations that take place as a result of drug use. Therefore, methods of managing or treating drug addiction that are directed to the molecular mechanisms responsible for the development of compulsive drug use, craving and relapse after abstinence, as well as screening methods which take into account such mechanisms for drug discovery, would be useful for effective management and treatment of addiction, withdrawal and relapse to drug taking.